


Late Night Soldiers

by jessejackreyes



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: 76 is kinda a dad, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Grumpy 76, Hana Contemplates, Hana and Lucio don't know who 76 is, Minor Angst, Not Beta Read, Platonic Relationships, mature rating for language, mutual respect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 14:27:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9076546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessejackreyes/pseuds/jessejackreyes
Summary: Waking up in the infirmary after a mission goes sideways, Hana ends up having a late night heart to heart with Soldier 76 over what happened and their inability to sleep;





	

**Author's Note:**

> So in the middle of writing other smutty things, this popped into my head and wouldn't leave until I got it out of there. Its a bit rushed by I kinda like it nonetheless. Its not my usual thing by a longshot but it happened so cool. I don't think D.Va gets enough love in general. Please excuse any mistakes, I got this out pretty quickly.

Pain is the first thing to return as Hana slowly regains a sense of the world around her. Her entire body is sore, she's pretty sure her skeleton is in pain as she finally manages to open her eyes. Bright white lights stare back at her. The environment around her is sterile, metallic, she must have been taken to some infirmary, that's a relief. Her head aches, nearly splitting open as her eyes move over one of the hanging lights.

“Looks like you're going to be fine,” The voice surprises her, though she's way too tired and sore to jump at it. Instead, she turns her head towards the source. Old man 76, bright red visor glowing, leans against the wall near the door watching her. “I'll let everyone know you're awake,” He turns around, leaving before she can manage a word, typical broody mysterious Soldier for you.

She tries not to let it bother her, what did it really matter? The man is always so standoffish and distant. Hana supposes it was his right to act that way even if it didn't tend to endear people to him. Instead of worrying about it, she distracts herself with the beeping around her that tells her that she is apparently doing fine. The IV in her arm is uncomfortable, yet familiar and the bright white lights are rather obnoxious, it feels annoying but safe.

“Hana you all right?” Lucio's voice breaks her out of her own thoughts. Her Brazilian friend's headphones are down, around his neck, a rare sight and he brought a bag of her favorite chips with him. It's her own brand, she only endorses things that she loved.

“A bit sore but I'm good. Worried?”

“A little,” He smiles handing over the bag he brought. “Thought you might want a snack,”

“Angela will flip if she sees these Luce,” She warns though it does not stop her from taking the bag and stuffing her face with a huge grin prompting them both into a fit of laughter. The sudden movement hurts but its better than sitting around and being bored.

“I also brought you this,” He announces handing her tablet to her. “Didn't want you to get too bored in here,”

“Thanks,” She grabs the device, grateful to have something to do when she was alone here waiting for permission to get out of the damn med-bay. “76 tell you I was awake?” Lucio had gotten here pretty quickly after she had woken up after all.

“Yeah, he's telling everybody,” Hana nods, that was exactly what he said he was going to do. “He's really relieved, hardly left the med-bay since you've been in here,” That was not the impression she got when they spoke earlier, he didn't seem worried at all.

“Really?” Lucio nods. “How long was I out?”

“About three days,”

“That old man stayed here for three days straight?” 

“He had to leave for the debriefing, and once or twice to help Winston. The doc had me bring him food because she was afraid he wouldn't eat otherwise.”

Why was he so worried about her? He had never shown much interest in getting to know her and while he hadn't been outright hostile, it was pretty obvious he had some kind of problem with her. She didn't really take it personally, he seemed to have problems with a lot of people, especially the new blood around here, like her.

“Something wrong?” Lucio inquires as she fell into her own thoughts. She was rarely very pensive around other people, so it was not surprising that he was worried a bit by how serious she looked.

She shrugs. “Just surprised that the old grump ass seemed to care so much,”

“That's not even the half of it,” Lucio bounces a bit as he speaks, excited or nervous, maybe both. “He carried you halfway across the battlefield to get you back here,” That might explain the worry, she thinks, didn't want all that effort to go to waste. “Oh yeah, you should see the video from the fight.”

“I don't stream our ops anymore Luce, don't need another lecture about putting people and plans in danger.”

“No somebody caught part of the fight and posted it, the qualities not the best but its quite a show,” He grabs her tablet from where she had left it on her bed and quickly pulls up the video in question. “Check it out.”

The moment the video starts up Hana is glued to the screen. It's apparently a video of her specifically from the battle, she remembered what was going on in the video well. An op gone wrong, fighting spilled into crowded streets, as the fight turned in her teams' favor Talon decided to eschew any qualms about collateral damage and things got messy. She was handling some old Omnic crisis Omnics that Talon had so graciously maintained and used against them. It was no trouble, her MEKA was made for fighting Omnics, normally larger ones, but Omnics nonetheless.

She remembers seeing them as she took down a small wave of the damn things, a group of innocent bystanders on the street in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is where the video picks up, it shows her changing course flying in front of them, screaming at them to get out of here. The video continues as the camera holder runs away, recording the fight as best he can while fleeing.

Hana watches from an outside angle as she interposes herself between them and the rogue robots. She watches as her forward barrier gives out. She watches as she fights back, her mech getting pelted with ordinance but unwilling to move because she could handle this, those civilians couldn't. Lucio gasps as a Talon agent pulls out something big and fired it straight at her; she watches as she can't get her defense matrix up. They watch together as her ejection system fails as she waits for several moments before impact, as the mech is thrown several feet, as it falls and she blacks out.

Her memories end there but the video continues. A body rushes in from the right of the screen, sprinting, damn near flying towards the wreck a volley of rockets she recognized flying before him. She has never seen anyone move as fast as old man 76 is in this video, if she didn't know any better she would swear he wasn't human. His rockets take down their mark, the last of the omnics she hadn't managed to take down yet falls even as they advanced on her.

Even as he runs the old man's aim is amazing, his visor glows brightly as he effortlessly takes down six armed Talon goons who had thought to capitalize on their victory over Hana. She watches him take out each and every hostile with practiced ease to reach her. He finds his way to the back of her MEKA and she watches as he wrenches the twisted metal apart with his bare hands and now she knows that he is not human, no one is that strong. The camera is too distant to see the state she is in when he drags her out, but she watches as he carries her to cover nearby, as she sees the telltale glow of his weird biotic medkit, as he all but screams into his communicator. She watches for several more seconds until the video cuts out.

Hana is not sure what part of the video has her more astounded, the superhuman feats of speed and strength that 76 displayed, or how far he went to drag her back here alive.

“He may be a grumpy old man, but I sure am glad he is on our side,” Lucio says placing the tablet back on Hana's bed. She nods her head in agreement. “Whoa, sorry Hana, I've gotta go, got Mess Hall duty tonight. I'll visit again when I'm free.”

The rest of her stay passes surprisingly quickly. She watches the video a few more times, she tries playing anything she has on her tablet to help pass the quiet empty moments. Angela returns shortly after Lucio leaves and much to Hans's relief releases her late that night with orders to get plenty of rest and to eat less junk food.

She's much too wired to lie down, let alone sleep. Contemplating her own mortality is not something she does often and it is not something that she enjoys doing but her near death has prompted such thought anew. She wanders the base aimlessly, because walking is better than being still at the moment when she hears gunfire from the practice range. Its well past midnight and someone is in the firing range, practicing.

It's not really a surprise when she walks in on Soldier 76 practicing, it seems like the old man spends more time training than he does breathing. It is a bit of a surprise when he stops what he's doing and looks over at her. His face is hidden behind that stupid mask of his but he seems to be appraising her.

“Angie know you're up and about?” he asked simply after a few moments.

“More or less, I'm supposed to be in bed but I can't sleep,” He simply nods in response.

“Welcome to the club kid,” The old soldier's voice was soft, pained and she knew it was not an insult or even really a joke. It was an actual welcome to a club no one wants to be a part of. It's a small glimpse into something inside the man it seems, the pain of an old soldier.

“Glad I bumped into you,”

“You're the only one,” The gruff and dismissive old man is suddenly back.

“I wanted to thank you,”

“For what?”

“I heard about, then saw what you did for me,”

“No thanks necessary kid, just doing my job,” There is a tone of finality to the words, as if he expects that to be the end of it.

“Bull shit, you endangered the mission to come get me and I wanted to say thank you old man,”

The old soldier freezes for a moment before he turns back toward the targets hefting his rifle and firing once again. Hana decides to watch as he unloads a few clips with amazing precision and speed, the soldier in the video was no fluke. He can only ignore her in place of shooting for so long before he has to stop and there is silence between the two of them again.

“What were you doing out there?” His voice is stern and reprimanding.

“Protecting some civilians that were caught in the crossfire,” She answers like it should have been obvious.

“You put yourself and the rest of the team in danger by heading off on your own like that, you put the mission in danger!” He is shouting now, frustration, anger boiling over the top.

“I joined this group to protect people Mr Soldier,” The taunting tone she used for his pseudonym may have been a bit childish but Hana was not going to sit by and be lectured about how she should have left innocent people to die. She expects more yelling or maybe more shooting but she doesn't expect 76 to let out a long sigh and take a seat nearby where she was watching him shoot.

“I've had this conversation more times than I can count Song,” His voice is soft again, melancholic. “I'm not normally on this side of it though.”

“I saw them and I had to act,” She tries to explain, though she doesn't really know how to express exactly why that is. He stops her as she fumbles for more words.

“I know,” They sit in silence for a while, both of them are tired and neither of them can sleep. “Lucio showed me the video too,” He announces after a while. “I saw you fight for them. I saw your eject fail. You had plenty of time to get out of there, I've seen your reflexes in action kid. Why didn't you move out of the way?” Hana knows that 76 doesn't need an answer, he already knows why, but she needs to say it, for herself at the very least.

“I could take the hit, they couldn't.” Perhaps putting words to what they both already knew was a bad idea, silence claimed them again and this time seemed intent on holding on tight.

“I misjudged you Ms Song,” She cannot see his face, but his tone sounds sorrowful, apologetic.

“How so?”

“I thought you were an arrogant punk. That you fought for fame and personal glory, real bad traits for soldiers fighting together,” The softness in his tone here is new, its not so melancholic, instead it sounds fond. “I was wrong and I am sorry,”

“Eh, I can't really blame you there,” Even through that mask she could tell his quizzical expression at that. Not many people get to see her so far out of her persona, so far removed from being D.Va, its surprising to most people how serious and thoughtfulvshe can get when the mood strikes her or she needs to be. “That's not too far off from where I started,” Hana explains, a less than fond look on her face. “The first real world test for me as a MEKA pilot was a public success but I nearly died. I was cocky and even younger than. I thought I was immortal or something,” Hana stands as she speaks now, pulling our her sidearm. Grabbing some ear protection she fires a full clip across the range slowly, taking careful aim with each shot.

She gets a grunt of approval from 76, her aim has improved considerably, as she continues, “I was going to quit after that, almost did.” She reloads her gun, still speaking, “Faced with real consequences I panicked,” Her words were replaced with shots again as she tried to repeat her first round a bit faster. The speed cost her some accuracy but the old soldier still approved.

“Why didn't you run?” He asks as her second clip was empty and silence retook the range.

“Before I could, I got to see what it meant to people, everything I was doing. The whole of Korea fell in love with me, not just because of some games, but for something more. When my fear was face to face with the people I had saved, not just numbers but the real people, that fear just didn't seem so bad anymore.” 76 stands next to her helping guide her aim for her third clip, giving advice as she fires. He did not press for more information as she loaded a forth and then fifth clip intent on firing and improving with each shot. Instead he patiently instructed her as he had done countless times before. 

“I found out that people didn't just want a soldier, they wanted a personality, a hero. Thats what D.Va is. She is smart, strong, funny, charismatic, everything people look for in an icon and on top of all of that she is untouchable, invincible,” She finishes, lowering her weapon, tired, in more ways than one, but content with the progress of her aim and the conversation.

“D.Va doesn't just protect the people, she inspires them,” The old soldier continues for her. “She gives people hope,” The words are not aimed at Hana they seem to be for 76 to consider something himself.

“I think this exhaustion is catching up to me,” She announces as she puts her gun away and cleans up the gear she used. “I should hopefully be able to sleep now. Good night old man,”

"Get some rest Soldier," 76 commands softly with a nod as she salutes and walks off. His voice calls out as she reaches the door, “You shouldn't have to be fighting. It should have ended with us.” That soft and pained melancholy returns to his voice. Hana knows that its a foolish thought, there will likely always be some fight for the young no matter what those before them do, but she thinks she can at least understand why it hurts him so. She would like to make things better for those who come after her, maybe not perfect but better, otherwise there is no point in fighting at all. It would just be a waste of time.

“Don't lose that spark miss Song. Once upon a time I knew what that meant, knew why I fought, I would have done exactly what you did without a second thought. I don't want you to end up like me, a broken soldier.” The door is open as he speaks the last and she pauses at the threshold.

“I don't think you ever really lost it old man, you saved me didn't you?” She is out the door before he can respond. She is around 30 seconds down the hall before the shooting picks up again and she finds herself hoping that he will find some sleep eventually.


End file.
